The bill makes various revisions to statutes concerning the Judicial Department court operations and the Office of Victim Services, with fiscal impacts as follows:

Section 7 provides for the electronic delivery of court notices, orders, decisions, executions or other documents by court clerks and will result in a savings to the Judicial Department of $120,000.
1

Section 27 authorizes the Office of Victim Services (OVS) within the Judicial Department to compensate individuals who are victims of sexual assault or child abuse and have disclosed the information to certain individuals.
To the extent that victims take advantage of this change, an estimated increased cost of $50,000 to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Fund (CICF) will result in order to provide compensation to qualifying victims.
2 This estimate assumes about 30 victims will receive compensation as a result of this change.

Sections 28 and 29 remove the $100 deductible that is required before a crime victim can receive compensation.
To the extent that this increases the number of people who are eligible for victim compensation, an estimated increased cost of $22,500 to the CICF will result in order to provide compensation to victims who have total losses of less than $100.
This estimate assumes 300 additional victims will receive compensation of $100 or less.

Section 30 clarifies that the OVS is entitled to be reimbursed for compensation it has paid to victims who have received compensation for the same item from another source, regardless of the source.
As this currently does not occur in many instances, the amount estimated to be recovered is less than $30,000 as a result of this change.

Section 502 results in a potential revenue gain by adding language that would require parties found indigent to pay court fees and the cost of service if the matter is found to be frivolous.
However it is uncertain if such parties would pay the fees since they have been found to be indigent and unable to pay for fees and services.

House “A” added language regarding indigent frivolous claims that results in a potential revenue gain and other clarifying changes that did not result in a fiscal impact.

The Out Years

The annualized ongoing fiscal impact identified above would continue into the future subject to inflation.

Sources:

Core-CT Financial Accounting System

1 In 2011, the Judicial Department spent approximately $650,000 in regular postage related to court operations and support enforcement.

2 In 2011, the OVS provided approximately $1.2 million worth of criminal injury awards from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Fund.